


Fallen

by LibraryMage



Series: Ktavnukkah 5778 [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Gen, Order 66, Platonic Cuddling, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 09:06:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13027776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: When the Republic falls and the Jedi are slaughtered, Force sensitives across the galaxy feel it, and most of them don't know why.





	Fallen

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ktavnukkah day four. Prompt: mourning.
> 
> Another installment of the West Wing Star Wars AU. This takes place eight years after "Rainy Days," so Ellie would be 11 at this point, Liz is 15 going on 16, and Zoey is 7.

Something closed around Ellie, like a giant, unseen hand gripping her tighter and tighter.  Pain erupted in her stomach like she’d been punched.  The dish she was holding slipped from her hands and back into the sink, clattering against the metal.

“El?”  She heard the voice like it was travelling through a pillow held over someone’s face, distant and muffled.  Suddenly Liz was next to her.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Cold,” Ellie muttered.  It was the only word she could manage.

Liz’s arm slid around her shoulders and Ellie, suddenly overwhelmed, feeling like something had just crashed down on her head, turned to her sister and threw her arms around her middle, pressing her face into Liz’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Liz asked.  Ellie could only shake her head, a soft whine rising in the back of her throat.

“Mom!” Liz called.  That whine in Ellie’s throat grew more insistent as she tried to make herself say _No, I’m fine, don’t tell Mom._   But the words just wouldn’t come.  She tried to pull away, but Liz wasn’t letting her go.  She heard footsteps behind her and, even through the roaring in her ears, she immediately identified them as her mother’s.

“I think Ellie’s sick,” Liz said.  “She started spacing out and she said she was cold and she’s shivering and…”

Ellie squeezed her eyes shut to better tune out Liz’s voice.  It was a mistake.  When she closed her eyes, she felt like she was being crushed.  She just barely registered the feeling of a cool hand on her forehead.

“Ellie?”  Her mother’s voice sounded muffled just like Liz’s had.

“No fever,” Abbey said.  “Liz, help me.”

It took Abbey and Liz a few minutes to get Ellie upstairs to her room.  By the time they reached it, Ellie was gasping for air, her eyes wide, staring blankly into the space in front of her, and Abby was certain she was having a panic attack.  That had never been unusual for Ellie, but this had come on with no explanation.

Once she was in her room, her favorite blanket wrapped around her shoulders, her stuffed cat that she pretended she was too old to need anymore clutched in her hands, and her sister perched beside her on the edge of the bed, Ellie slowly began to calm down.  But something still wasn’t right.  She was no longer panicking, but she felt…empty, like something had been ripped out of her.

* * *

 

Hours passed before they realized what had happened.  They got the news over the HoloNet first.  The Jedi had been plotting to overthrow the Chancellor and the Senate and an order had been issued for the execution of every Jedi across the galaxy.  Some had “escaped justice” as every broadcast put it, as though they’d been issued a script, but searches were under way to find the remaining Jedi.  And the Republic that the entire Bartlet family, even little Zoey, lived and breathed for was no more.

It was only moments after Jed and Abbey heard the news that someone started pounding at the door.  Leo half-stepped, half-stumbled over the threshold, a look of horror on his face.  He’d heard before they did and had been on his way to tell them the version of the story he’d learned from his own sources when the broadcasts announcing it began.

Holed up in her room, lying in bed and staring at the wall, Ellie was the only one who didn’t hear what had happened.  But she didn’t need to.  She felt it.  Bright lights all across the galaxy being stomped out.  Voices, little voices that sounded like Zoey’s, crying out before they went quiet forever.

There was a soft knock at her door, but Ellie didn’t respond.  The door opened with a quiet _creak_.  Ellie didn’t need to look to know it was Liz who was approaching her.

Liz lay down beside Ellie, one arm protectively encircling her little sister.  Ellie leaned into Liz’s embrace.  For a while, they stayed that way, lying there in total silence, until Liz spoke.  Her voice was low, but the room was so quiet, her words cut through the air.

“The Jedi are dead.”

“I know,” Ellie said.  “The Republic’s dead too, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

They didn’t react to the sound of small, rapid footsteps coming down the hall, they were so crushed under the weight of their shock and grief.  Zoey entered the room a moment later and climbed onto the bed, settling herself on Ellie’s other side.  Ellie glanced down to see Zoey’s face is wet with tears.

“Why’re you crying?” she asked as she put her arms around her baby sister, holding her close to her chest.

“I’m not stupid,” Zoey muttered.  “I know what happened.”

None of them needed to say another word.  They wouldn't have been able to if they’d tried.


End file.
